


It's your finger and how I'm wrapped around it

by JustSomeMusings



Series: This is the way, this is the way we move [2]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Max is his usual adorable self, Raleigh just wants to propose dammit, Some Cursing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-11
Updated: 2013-09-11
Packaged: 2017-12-26 06:37:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,587
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/962762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustSomeMusings/pseuds/JustSomeMusings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A 2+1 sequel to Dog Days Are Over about Raleigh trying to propose to Chuck.</p>
<p>It doesn't go that well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's your finger and how I'm wrapped around it

**Author's Note:**

> Right, so this is for Nina who asked for a proposal fic to follow up on Dog Days. Your wish my command love. 
> 
> And a big thanks to my bestest friend [Amanda](http://ahintofblue.tumblr.com/) for putting up with me when I write and letting me bounce ideas off her. She's the whole reason that's this has turned into a series and there will be other parts to it :) 
> 
> Title of this part is from The Spill Canvas song Lullaby and the whole series title is from Langhorne Slim & The Law's, The Way We Move.

Raleigh has a plan. A very good plan. A great one even. 

It starts when Raleigh asks Chuck to move in, which isn’t that difficult to do because Chuck has practically been living with him for three months already. He hasn’t slept in his assigned quarters for weeks and neither has Max, which is an assured sign of Chuck having confiscated half of his apartment. Most of their stuff is in Raleigh’s apartment. Chuck really only goes back to his place for more clothes and the odd toy that he forgets about for Max. It honestly only makes sense that Chuck would move in.

Sense. It makes sense. He has no idea why the fuck he’s so nervous to ask. Chuck has already moved in, so it’s stupid to even feel a little queasy at the prospect of asking him to make it official. Chuck is obviously going to say yes. Right? Right. He can do this. He can ask Chuck. Plus if Chuck seems hesitant or says no he can always sic Max on him. Max’s puppy dog eyes are legendary. There’s nothing that causes Chuck to cave faster than when Max turns the eyes on him and nudges at him forlornly. Well, Max and kisses. It’s pretty much guaranteed that whenever Raleigh kisses Chuck the other man loses his train of thought (that may or may not have gotten Raleigh out of the Great Who Actually Lost Max’s Favorite Dog Toy Debate). 

He just has to do this all one step at a time. Asking Chuck in is step one. Getting Max into position is step two. Getting Max to not chew on the box is step three. Actually asking Chuck to marry him is step four. Four steps, four relatively easy steps. Well easy in his head. Chuck is unpredictable (which is why he looks as if there is a parade that is currently being rained on, and not just rained on, but downpoured upon), so really Raleigh is just hoping he sticks to the plan that he has no idea about and says yes in all the right places. 

There’s a library in the Shatterdome. It’s not used much during the day when everyone is working, so it mostly gets used as a hiding place. It’s Chuck’s favorite hiding place to be exact. That could also be a reason most people avoid the room during the day. If Chuck is hiding it’s most likely because he’s angered the wrong person and therefore his person should be avoided at all costs. When Raleigh finds Chuck in his window seat actually reading and not looking like the cat that watched the goldfish, stalked the goldfish, and then made a well calculated attack and caught the goldfish he’s fairly relieved. Chuck’s troublemaker streak is rather adorable; however talking people down from murdering Chuck is irritating to say the least. 

Chuck’s too deep into the book to even notice him. He mumbles to himself as he reads and Raleigh will forever find that endearing as all hell. Max does notice him though and perks his head up. He hefts himself up onto Chuck’s legs, much to the annoyance of Chuck who lets out an exasperated Max as the dog’s claws dig in, and goes to greet Raleigh. Raleigh grins as Max waddles up to him, carefully looks up to confirm that Chuck is still enmeshed in this book, before holding out the ring box to Max. The pup sniffs it carefully and Raleigh rolls his eyes at him because he made sure to familiarize Max with the box for over a month. And Max, Max is a smart dog who knows what’s up and just wants to annoy Raleigh. Raleigh can see it in that doggy grin being directed his way. He glares at Max as he deigns to take the box and then trots away to his position.

“What are you up to Raleigh?” He startles out of his glare and almost ends up on his ass. Chuck chuckles in amusement before coming to stand in front of a grumbling Raleigh and wrapping his arms around his waist, finger marking the place in his book. Raleigh cups Chuck’s cheeks, brushing thumbs along cheekbones, and kisses Chuck warm and sweet. He can feel Chuck’s smile right before he kisses back. Raleigh rests his forehead against Chuck’s, who sing-songs, “That’s not going to work!” 

Raleigh outrights laughs making Chuck grin. Raleigh loves that grin. Loves that it reaches Chuck’s eyes because there was a long while where he thought it would never do that again. He presses kisses to Chuck’s jaw as he continues to laugh. He swears that he can feel Chuck’s eye roll as the hand not holding the book buries itself in Raleigh’s hair (which he should probably cut cause it really is getting too long) and tugs into he unearths Raleigh’s face from wearing he’d been nipping at Chuck’s pulse point. The stern look on Chuck’s face only makes him want to kiss the man again, but he knows better after The Chuck Is Annoyed Because Raleigh Lost His Favorite Shirt Incident. 

“It’s a surprise,” Raleigh wasn’t sure it was really possible, but Chuck’s stern look gets even sterner often he says those words. 

“I don’t like surprises,” Chuck huffs. Raleigh kisses him in apology.

“It’s a good surprise,” Raleigh replies against Chuck’s lips, “You gotta answer a question first though.” 

Chuck hums in response, “What?” 

“Will you move in with me?” Raleigh holds his breath. He put the words out there. Chuck’s eyebrows furrow, a sure sign of his confusion. 

“I think I already did,” he says. Raleigh laughs again before leaning in to kiss the confused look off Chuck’s off.

“I know. Just wanna make it official,” Raleigh mumbles when the break. 

“Oh. Then yes. Yes, I will move in with you,” Chuck grins as he speaks. It’s his, ‘You’re a drongo, but I love you anyway,' grin. Raleigh hauls him back into a smoldering kiss that has Chuck dropping his book to bury his hand in the t-shirt at the small of Raleigh’s back. Just as Raleigh runs his teeth along Chuck’s tongue making the younger moan he hears the library doors burst open. 

“I found Max! He was carrying something in his mouth. You guys should keep a better on him. He could have choked on it,” Newt’s rush of words has Raleigh’s head spinning, but that could also be lack of oxygen he was just experiencing.

“Max we’ve talked about this,” and so the reprimanding begins. Chuck detaches himself from Raleigh and Raleigh groans. There go his plans. Chuck menaces over Max and starts his lecture. Max is damn fine actor in Raleigh’s opinion because he’s all apologetic lowered ears and eyes on the ground. That dog is way too damn smart.

“What did he get at?” Chuck looks up at Newt and Raleigh panics. Thank God Chuck is looking at Newt because Raleigh’s weird dance signal thing to try to convey to Newt that he shouldn’t mention the box would have him blackmailed for life. The throat slashing motion seems to make Newt realize what Raleigh’s trying to get a cross cause the words that come out of his mouth are a complete lie, 

“It was one of those plastic cups from the mess. Someone must’ve dropped it,” and that sound? That was the sound of Raleigh’s relief when Chuck sighs and shakes his head at Max, who looks up with those damn eyes and Chuck melts before their very eyes. He gives Max a kiss and rubs at his ears. Max perks up in an instance. 

“C’mon then. Let’s go get the rest of our stuff and put in our apartment,” Chuck stands as he says it and smiles at Raleigh. He grabs his book before slipping out the door, Max hot on his heels. Raleigh heaves a sigh. There’s no way this is going to happen today. Chuck will be entirely focused on making sure Max is ok for the rest of the day. 

“Sorry man. I didn’t even think. Just saw Max and got worried,” Newt says staring at the ring nestled in the now open box.

“It’s ok. I’ll figure something out,” Raleigh answers. Newt hands him the ring box, claps him on the shoulder, and heads out the door. Raleigh stares at the ring. Runs this thumb across it. Smiles at it. He’ll ask. But not today. 

Today he’s got a pup to sneak treats too as an apology and a thanks. 

\---

Raleigh is entirely grateful that he had the foresight to get decoy ring boxes because it’s been three months since the messed up proposal and Chuck is starting to get suspicious when Raleigh steals Max away for hours at a time as he sorts out his next proposal plan. When Chuck is suspicious he snoops and snoop the man does, so Raleigh isn’t actually all that surprised that Chuck manages to find a ring box. Thankfully, it’s filled with condoms, which has Chuck bursting out laughing every time he looks at Raleigh for a week (‘Do you take my cock in sickness and in health Ral-leigh?’). Raleigh finds that kissing gets the laughter to stop and that fucking him with the help of those condoms gets him to forget about it for a good long while. So all in all it’s a really fucking good week (pun intended). 

He’s grateful for the decoy condoms because they distract Chuck and he seems to forget that he was even suspicious of anything in the first place. It gives Raleigh the chance to finish figuring out the details of his new plan, which involves a few more people (in the hope that no one will interrupt this time) and thus more effort to coordinate. This time it’s going work. He’s certain of it. Everyone has been briefed, Max knows what he has to do (they’ve practiced), the clues are all made up, and Raleigh hasn’t managed to lose the ring. Basically, everything is in place except for Chuck, who needs to get his butt back from the gym pronto or Raleigh is going to murder him for ruining all his plans. 

He has a carefully laid scavenger hunt and Chuck is going to go on it, follow Max (the official guide dog because Chuck is going to get through this) to the end, get to Raleigh at the end, and say yes. That’s how this is happening. Nothing is interrupting it. And god-fucking-dammit where the hell is the little shit. People can only be around for so long to help and if Chuck doesn’t get his cute little backside back to their apartment and shower by one, so that he can start by one thirty (thank God Chuck only takes fifteen minute showers), then everyone is going to go back to doing their jobs. For the love of fucking God and all that is holy, please let Chuck come back any minute now or Raleigh will start to throw-Oh. Chuck’s home.

Chuck.

Is.

Home. 

“Where’s Max?” and of course that’s the first thing that Chuck worries about. 

“With Tendo.” 

Chuck smiles at him, kisses him, and then slips around him to the shower before Raleigh has really registered anything beyond Chuck is home. This is actually happening. He’s going to propose today. He’s asking Chuck to marry him. Holy. Fuck. Raleigh just kind of stares at the closed bathroom door for a minute in sheer awe because he’s asking Chuck Hansen to marry him and he might say yes. He hears the shower go on and he knows that in about ten seconds he’ll hear Chuck’s out of tune voice singing something. Wait for it. Anddddddd queue the horrendous rendition of ‘House of the Rising Sun’. Raleigh grins at the closed door. He’s asking Chuck to marry him and the little shit better say yes. 

He grabs his phone and sends out the mass text, ‘Mission is a go,’ before pinning up the first clue onto the corkboard in the kitchen where he knows a very hungry post-workout Chuck will appear after his shower in search of sustenance. He’s still grinning when he heads out into the hallway and towards his hiding spot at the end: the library. It’s Chuck’s favorite place besides their apartment, so it only makes sense to propose there. Besides it’s one of the easier rooms in the Shatterdome to transform and Raleigh has transformed it. It’s perfect from the day before when he set it up and used Max, Mako, Tendo, Newt, and Gottleib as distractions for Chuck. He’s still not sure how Newt actually managed to convince Chuck that he really needed his opinion on Kaiju anatomy. 

Now all he’s gotta do is wait. It should only take about an hour and a half. Maybe a little more since Chuck tends to get distracted, hence why he’s spent all the time training Max on keeping Chuck on target. He takes another look at the table he’s set everything up on. The candles aren’t lit yet, but the ring is there in its box sitting in the middle of its nest of arums, aster, white carnations, and honeysuckle. He had wanted roses, however Mako’s look of utter disdain told him that there was no way because flowers have meanings Raleigh, you can’t just do roses, and we’ll find the perfect ones. He ended up spending an hour arguing whether or not primroses really counted as roses (‘But they mean eternal love!’ ‘No. Roses are cliché and boring. You and Chuck are anything but.’).

He flops down onto the really comfortable leather couch (no, but really, is there memory foam in this thing?) and grabs the nearest book off the table. It’ll most likely be one that Chuck has finished, or is close to finishing, because those are the ones he tends to leave lying around. Chuck doesn’t want to go have to look for them when he has the time to ravenously finish them. So basically, Raleigh has no idea if he’ll like The Maze Runner, but it’ll pass the time at least. And pass the time it does because he’s so deep into trying to puzzle out what the fuck WICKED is up too and how the hell Grievers are a thing that he doesn’t really notice when an hour and half goes by or two hours or three and by four he’s finished the book and is hunting around the library for the next one. 

He’s startled out of his quest (because he really needs to know whether those kids are safe for his mental health) when the library doors slam open and breathless Gottlieb bursts through the door. The man lunges for the ring, slams the box closed, and shoves it in his pocket. And Raleigh, well Raleigh is stunned. Stunned and confused. And he really hopes Gottlieb’s leg is ok after that stunt. It occurs to him that this does not bode well for his plans. Gottlieb spins around in a circle until he sees him, book in hand, staring at him like the mad scientist that he is. 

“We may have lost Max,” Gottlieb announces. 

Shit. 

“What do you mean ‘may have’?” Raleigh tosses the book onto the closest shelf and walks towards Gottlieb. 

“Well, we might have gotten distracted because Chuck just wanted to know where you were, so we might have taken our eyes off Max, and he might have gotten that tennis ball you’ve been promising him out of Newt’s grasp, and he maybe wondered off with it,” Gottlieb rushes it all out like maybe Raleigh won’t hear it and won’t get mad. Raleigh just kind of stares blankly. He should have known something was going to happen. It was too good to be true. He thought Max had been on his side. He heaves a deep sigh. 

“Raleigh Jackson Becket,” the sinister way his name is growled has him whipping around to stare at the doorway. Gottlieb winces at the harshness. Chuck’s there and he looks about ready for murder. Raleigh’s murder. 

“Chuck-”

“Raleigh,” Chuck murmurs. It’s calm. So very, very calm and steady, “Raleigh, if you don’t find my dog in the next five minutes I’m going to rip your intestines out through your mouth.” 

Shit. 

\---

They say that third times the charm and Raleigh, well, Raleigh really hopes that’s true because honestly there are only so many plans he can come up with to propose before he gets frustrated and just throws the ring at Chuck. It shouldn’t be this difficult to propose. It really shouldn’t. So he’s going for simple this time. Very, very simple. It’s going to take Max, the ring, a note, a flower, and a midnight blue ribbon (because that’s Chuck’s favorite color). It’s going to take Raleigh putting the ring and the note on that midnight blue ribbon and tying it to Max’s collar. Then it’s going to take Raleigh sending Max off on his proposal mission with a warning about his new tennis ball being taken away if he fails to complete it. 

They got this. 

So long as Max doesn’t betray him for another tennis ball. 

Or something shiny.

Positive. 

Think positive. 

He pushes Max out the door with the ring tied around his collar and the note with the primrose (because cliché works Mako, so stuff it) attached to the ribbon with a safety pin. Raleigh’s more resigned than anything as he watches Max waddle out the door. Something is going to go wrong. The universe clearly doesn’t want Raleigh to propose to Chuck even though would really, really love to marry Chuck, preferably sometime this century. Maybe it’s a sign. Maybe he should just be content with his relationship. After all, they’ve just hit the two year mark and Chuck is living with him. These are big accomplishments, huge accomplishments, on both their parts. 

Well it’s too late now and second thoughts are stupid. He wants to marry Chuck and he’s going to marry Chuck, universe be damned. Hopefully, Max reaches his goal and Raleigh doesn’t have to revisit is plan for throwing the ring at Chuck and hoping the Australian man gets the message. Yeah, Max better make it because that is a stupid plan that will most likely incite an argument about why Raleigh always throws things at Chuck and thinks he’ll catch them (in his defense he did say heads up when he tossed the milk. Chuck just can’t catch). 

He settles in with a new book about some kids are children of gods that run around the country fighting monsters and where the hell Chuck finds this stuff he’ll never know. He’ll never admit to liking, although Chuck’s smug smile tells him Chuck knows. Smarmy bastard. He’s gotten through maybe a fourth of it when the door to their apartment clicks open. He sits straight up in bed. He wasn’t nervous before, but he sure as fuck is now. Please let this have gone ok. 

Please, please, please. 

Chuck appears grinning in the doorway. He sprawls against it, holds up the notes, clears his throat, and reads, 

“Will you marry me? Check yes or no.” 

Raleigh stares at him wide-eyed. He’s fought fucking Kaiju and he’s never been this fucking anxious in his life. Chuck’s grin only widens if anything. 

“Really Rah-liegh? Did you really just ask me to marry you like a little kid?”

“Well I tried grand romantic gestures, but they failed fantastically,” he responds. Chuck looks puzzled at his words. His head lowers in thought and Raleigh can see the ideas turning over in his head as he tries to figure out when Raleigh could have been proposing in the last few months. When Chuck’s head snaps back up to look at him again it’s with awe. 

“The scavenger hunt thing?” 

“Yup.” 

“And when I moved in? When Max was chewing on something ? Wasn’t a cup, was it?” 

“Nope.”

“Wow.”

“Uh huh.” 

“You suck at this.” 

“Yup…Wait a second! I do not! There were just complications that-” 

Chuck kisses him. Raleigh completely forgets his protesting train of thought. He gets lost in that kiss. It’s love. They’ve always had different kisses. Ones for anger, exasperation, contentment, excitement, but love is always Raleigh’s favorite one. It’s a reminder. They went from fighting tooth and nail with each other to almost missing the best thing that had ever happened to them to two years and an apartment full of happy memories. Love will always be Raleigh’s favorite just like content will always be Chuck’s because it means that they’re happy with each other. 

“You haven’t answered yet,” Raleigh mumbles against his lips. Chuck makes an impatient noise of exasperation. He also shoves his left hand in Raleigh’s face to shove the black and gold stainless steel band in his face. He wiggles his fingers in Raleigh’s face until Raleigh catches his wrist and tugs it forward. He places a kiss on ring, raising his eyes to meet Chuck’s. Chuck interlocks their fingers before leaning down to place a soft kiss on Raleigh’s lips. Raleigh continuously runs his thumb along the ring. He breaks their kiss in favor of kissing the ring again. Seeing it on Chuck’s finger makes it real. Chuck lets out a long suffering sigh before breathing out against Raleigh’s lips, 

“Yes.” 

It’s the best word Raleigh’s ever heard. 

He kisses Chuck again, so he can taste it on his lips.

**Author's Note:**

> [Chuck's Ring](http://www.zales.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11844963&fd=Men%27s&fd=Stainless+Steel&size=96&fv=Gender%2FMen%27s&fv=Metal+Type%2FStainless+Steel&ff=PAD&ff=PAD)
> 
>  
> 
> Got the flower meanings from [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_of_flowers), If they're wrong, then I apologize!
> 
> Also totally made up Raleigh's middle name, so there's that lol


End file.
